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Maybe this will settle somthing.Let's see what 1218 can do with a 7500 ton train on straight, level track, maybe even where the Class A's regularly hauled such trains 60 mph or so.And let's see what three SD70s can do with such a train. My guess is they will not quite make it to 60 mph.And of course we keep close track of the fuel and water consumption.Let's see what is more economical by today's prices to run heavy trains at such speed.The capital costs are more speculative. The prices of diesels are well known, but what it would cost to produce steam locomotives in any quantity is speculative indeed. And if we did produce new steam, it would be with the Porta/Wardale boiler, Lempor exhaust, poppet valves, and 300 lb pressure. How much these would be worth is speculative too, but some reaonable estimate should not be beyond reach. It is speculative too how much interest rates will rise, but not especially speculative they will rise considerably in the reasonably near future. Higher interest rates will greatly favor the lower capital costs of steam. Not only that, but they will put a premium on train speed, not unlike on the old Great Northern silk trains. This would be a steam/diesel comparison at the speeds that matter now. And it is not that diesels cannot haul heavy trains fast. It is that they are very expensive in such service, at least by data from twenty years ago. So let's let 1218 strut her stuff. Even her seven decade old technology might be more economical in such service than the latest diesels.
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